BBC News US & Canada updated the case of Gilberto Valle today. The New York City police officer has been found guilty of plotting to murder his wife, and cook and eat other women. According to BBC News US & Canada, “Gilberto Valle - dubbed the "cannibal cop" by US media - was arrested by the FBI last year after a tip-off by his wife, from whom he is now estranged. The 28-year-old faces life in prison when he is sentenced in June. Valle's lawyers argued he had merely engaged in a role-playing fantasy he concocted while browsing fetish websites, and said they would appeal.”
“But prosecutor Hadassa Waxman told the US District Court in Manhattan that Valle had "left the world of fantasy and entered the world of reality" by contacting some of the women mentioned in his plans. He was also convicted on a lesser charge of improperly accessing a law enforcement database to look up the women's personal information.”
Valle was paid $5000 by a New Jersey man to kidnap a woman. He did visit the street the woman lived on. Police found evidence on his computer of searches which included the best rope to tie people up and "human flesh" and "white slavery" search terms.
The estranged wife testified, "I was going to be tied up by my feet and my wrists and my throat slit, and they were going to watch the blood drain out of me…Valle had discussed how two other women would be "raped in front of each other to heighten their fears", and another would be roasted alive over a fire.”
Galle lawyer said the court focused on his "unusual and bizarre and frankly very ugly" thoughts, and not on the fact that no-one had been harmed.
According to Listverse, “There is nothing as disgusting as people who torture, murder, and cannibalize humans. In the past, humans have practiced cannibalism in many parts of the world. Today, the Korowai are one of the few tribes believed to eat human flesh as a cultural practice. In most countries, the act of human cannibalism is not illegal, nor a problem. People who eat human flesh are unusually charged with a crime relating to murder or desecration of a body. In the past, cannibalism has been practiced by people suffering from famine or starvation. However there is much debate in the field of criminal cannibalism.
Listverse goes on to say, “Within the field of psychology there is a debate on what factors lead a person to practice criminal cannibalism. Some evidence suggests that cannibalism is a result of trauma experienced in childhood. It has been called a “psychological response to anger and frustration” expressed through oral aggression and an urge to literally absorb a person through consumption. In reality, people who kill and eat others are mentally unstable and dangerous predators. These types of individuals are rare and many countries have never seen a serial human cannibal. The life of a cannibal encompasses some of the worst and most sadistic examples of human capability.”
Since Gilberto Valle was stopped before ever cannibalizing anyone he does not rank among the top 20 cannibals. However, Ottis Toole was an American serial killer, arsonist, and cannibal. Toole killed and ate his victims with some barbecue sauce. On September 15, 1996, at the age of 49, Ottis Toole died in his prison cell from liver failure. Authorities officially named Ottis Toole as the likely killer of Adam Walsh, son of John Walsh from “America’s Most Wanted.”
It will be interesting to note what kind of sentencing Gilberto Valle the “cannibal cop” will be given since no actual murder had occurred.
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